


Picked up Pieces

by SoarHighFox



Series: Anthology of Scenes - Star Wars [1]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Devoted Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren, Established Relationship, F/M, Fluff, Forehead Kisses, Hurt/Comfort, Mentions of Violence, Rey Needs A Hug, angry rey, kind of a one-shot, mentions of foster care, rey breaks some things, rey might have control issues, short-scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-25
Updated: 2020-09-25
Packaged: 2021-03-07 18:01:50
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,982
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26641879
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SoarHighFox/pseuds/SoarHighFox
Summary: Rey’s friends are having a party for her to celebrate what’s supposed to be her big promotion, but Rey instead comes home with the utter shock that she’s been fired. Not wanting to party for certain, she gets angry and rages at everyone to leave whilst destroying everything in the process. Rey has done everything she’s supposed to. Gets the grades, the scholarships, works as hard as she’s supposed to, sacrifices what she needs to, and still ends up losing. Ben’s there to help pick up the pieces.Inspired by and using the Picard Quote “It’s possible to commit no mistakes and still lose. That’s not weakness. That is life.”
Relationships: Ben Solo/Rey, Rey/Ben Solo|Kylo Ren
Series: Anthology of Scenes - Star Wars [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1938268
Comments: 4
Kudos: 38





	Picked up Pieces

**Author's Note:**

> Hi~ Because I keep getting hit with the urge to write certain scenes I come up with, but not whole fics, I decided I would start a sort of "Anthology of Scenes" to practice writing different types of stories all within the Star Wars (most likely Reylo only). Some will be shorter than others. And they're just moments I get inspiration for and just NEED to write. If someone wants to take it and run with a whole story feel free, I'd only ask for credit in that portion that's borrowed. :D Hope you all enjoy what runs around in my head! I'll try and make sure tags are listed at the beginning of notes for further chapters. Hope you all enjoy!! 
> 
> Also HUGE thank you to Alaztyr for helping me edit this to fruition~

Twenty-seven and a half years. That’s how long this had been in the making for Rey. She had made it through school, gotten the degree, dug in and gotten her master’s after that, only to succeed in scoring a job at New Republic Technologies and begin to throw herself into climbing the ladder there. Years and years of sleepless nights; studying as hard as she could to maintain that GPA first in high school, to nab all the scholarships she could, and then in college to finish her undergrad with honors.

And now, as she sat looking at her inbox, she smiled.

_Miss Niima,_

_Palpatine would like to see you this afternoon at 5:00pm._

The previous head of engineering had recently been let go, and as she had been project lead on many of NRT’s biggest projects, all having successful launches, she was confident this was her chance to rise to the top.

The resilience and cunning she’d developed after years and years of bouncing in the foster care system, until finally aging out, stuck hard with her and cultivated her drive and determination to succeed that was second to none.

That was the only way she had escaped Unkar Plutt’s forsaken junkyard that the system had left her in. And that had been even after nine previous home failures. Family after family giving up when she became too difficult, or couldn’t comprehend the outbursts resulting from the undue trauma she needed to sort through, and all of them failing to simply provide the unconditional love and security she craved for so long.

Plutt was the worst of the lot.

No one made another check on her after she had been left with him, her caseworker quietly never contacted her again. Plutt did as he pleased, forcing her to earn her keep each and every day. She was required to go to school, but from the time she got home, until it was too dark to work outside any more, Plutt expected her to be out there, scavenging parts he could resell for profit. If she brought enough back, he’d let her eat.

There were many nights in the dark winters she can recall her stomach rolling with pains from lack of food.

Eventually, the tears stopped.

So did counting how many days she’d been left with the obese, lazy brute.

She buried her insecurities, filling the holes in herself with whatever she could to survive, and kept her walls high. If she didn’t let people in, they couldn’t abandon her. Simple survival. She could control herself; she could control where she went from there. So she scavenged the parts and learned what she could from the items in the junkyard. When she finished for the evening and had eaten, if she ate, she spent many hours into the night working on her homework. She knew school would be her escape, and she threw herself into her studies.

Mechanics came easily; it was logical, procedural. It didn’t have relational expectations to maintain, and while it could take time to fix, parts could always be changed or modified to create the solution to a unique problem. She never gave up on her projects, seeing them through to completion each time.

Rey pulled out her phone and shot off a text to the group chat.

**GUYS! The boss is asking me to come to his office this afternoon! This might be the big moment we’ve all been waiting for!! (also I’ll be late getting home) - Rey**

The chat was flooded with responses almost immediately.

**OMG. REY. This is ur time honey! We R all rooting for u! U got this in the bag! ;) - Rose**

**Get em Peanut! Show them how fucking incredible you are! They couldn’t pick someone better if they tried! - Finn**

**Bout ducking time they realized your greatness Rey!! WE GON CELEBRATEEEEE. DRINKS ON ME. - Poe**

**Ducking autocorrect. - Poe**

**OHFORFUCKSSAKE - Poe**

**Need some help with that new phone there Babe? - Finn**

**Poe, u can turn it off u know? - Rose**

Rey giggled to herself as she watched the responses continue, before turning back to her schematics to review for next year’s prototype hydrogen-consuming propulsion engine they had been working on, specifically to fit public transport. Biggest project of her life.

When Rey finally made it to college, she had met Rose, who was her freshman year roommate, and who eventually had become her best friend.

Hesitant, to say the least, Rey slowly began letting her in more as the stubborn asian wormed her way further and further into Rey’s life. Nights throughout the years filled with arguments, panic attacks, crying sessions, mental breakdowns, studying sessions, and honest to goodness nights wasted away with laughter chipped away at the labyrinth she had painstakingly constructed around herself.

During that same freshman year of college, she also met Finn in one of her gen ed courses. He’d been through the system too; he understood. Finn became the brother she never knew she needed.

Suddenly, Rey found she had people in her corner, supporting her in life and helping her through crises she’d only ever managed on her own before. It was new, and unsettling. She’d always handled everything on her own, and asking for help wasn’t a thing.

The first time the pair had tried to help her with a project that was becoming overwhelming, she’d immediately lashed out and pushed them away. First she had been immediately distrustful. What did they want in return? Because no one just did something for free, everything came at a price. They had tried so hard to convince her they didn’t want anything but then she was angry.

She had been so angry that they felt she couldn’t manage it on her own. For goodness sake, she had come this far all on her own, she could make her life her own without assistance, because others let you down. Her fist had been clenched so tight, nails broke through the top layers of skin, and she had genuinely yelled at them over it.

Rose had been shocked, but having grown up with an older sister, she wasn’t one to back down from (now obviously) petty argument. Finn, to his credit, didn’t jump into the fray, but he didn’t leave either. At the conclusion of the fight, with both ladies panting a bit from the effort, he spoke up and said, “You don’t have to go this alone, Peanut. We’re not going to leave you.”

The dams broke then. Choking, heaving sobs as she had fallen to the floor and continued to break down into an uncontrolled mess. They didn’t leave through it all.

That had been the first step to Rey understanding what family could be. That family didn’t have to be something you were simply born into; it could also be by choice.

Her phone chimed again, this tone different.

**I’m super proud of you sweetheart. - Ben**

Rey nibbled her lip as she typed out her response.

**I don’t know that’s actually what it’s about though. - Rey**

**Well, whatever it is, I still love you and I’m proud of you no matter what <3 - Ben**

Quietly getting her hopes up, Rey dug into her work to help the time pass.

Rey had met both Ben and Poe after Finn had spent weeks talking about the curly-haired exuberant ball of energy that he had as a history tutor. Two of the mushiest romantics fell head over heels for each other, even going so far as to pass love notes to each other while Poe was supposed to be TA’ing. As he became a staple in the group, doing well to help Rey realize what she might have been missing in life by holding the reins so tightly, there were nights the group found themselves hanging out at Poe’s apartment off campus instead of their dorm rooms. Ben was Poe’s roommate, finishing up his own masters while Rey had only just begun her undergrad.

In the beginning the two were prickly as cacti. Ben had a habit of being unabashedly condescending. Without his added height, looking down at one from his nose in general rubbed Rey the wrong way. Going so far as to even throw her drink in his face one evening when he’d made some snide comment about families. Desire to climb him like the tree he was be damned.

But throughout the bickering, there was a sort of odd fondness Rey felt for the man, and he was undoubtedly intelligent about whatever argument they were engaging in. After she had found herself spread too thin one semester, a couple years later, (taking far too many credits while working 2 part time jobs), she found herself falling behind in some classes. Ben offered to help her study, having already completed the same courses in pursuing his career in architecture. Rey didn’t feel the usual visceral response to say no and pull tightly on her need for control, and instead went with the feeling of accepting the aid.

Late nights together combined with take-out, and accidentally falling asleep on someone’s shoulder, lead one thing to another, and Rey had soon realized she was falling for Ben.

Their friends suffered for another year, watching as the two dumb idiots danced around each other thinking the other only wasn’t interested in the same respect, before one vacation they all took together (just before Rey was starting grad school in the fall) and just enough alcohol brought all the confessions forward.

Now there wasn’t a force that could tear them apart. Grounded firmly in each other, and having overcome a lot of conflict together (“boy can those two hotheads FIGHT” Rose had said once when the others scattered at an escalating argument), they were each other’s harmony. Sometimes they balanced each other, calm and outraged, logical and whimsical, and other times they were the fire helping the other’s spark grow stronger, the waves that rolled together to crash down in strength.

Five o’clock rolled into the station at such a tardily pace, Rey had worked herself into a bundle of energy. Outward, she maintained her professional demeanor, the excess energy leaking as she absently cracked her knuckles with her thumbs repeatedly. Everything was sort of falling into place now. She’d checked all the boxes, she’d put in the hours, she’d jumped through the hoops, she’d overcome the odds, and she knew deep down she had this opportunity in the bag.

The sensation of the elevator moving felt so fast it threw her stomach up into her throat, like that time she went on a roller coaster with Finn once during a summer break. Similar nerves accompanied her now.

It was quiet at the top. A single assistant sat in a large, half-moon desk typing away without looking up as Rey approached.

She cleared her throat softly before speaking.

“Hello, Palpatine asked to see me?”

The assistant didn’t turn to face her, and in an unnerving slow fashion, slid only her eyes in Rey’s direction.

“Ah,” she said after a moment, still unmoving, “Engineering.”

It wasn’t a question. She said nothing and pointed her long, sharp hand towards a large door behind her.

Slightly unsettled, Rey made her way towards the indicated entrance. The door was partially open and she followed the implicit invitation to enter.

“Hello? I’m Rey Niima from Applied Technologies. You wanted to see me?” she greeted with a smile.

The CEO of New Republic Technologies didn’t often make appearances in the public eye, leading to an air of mystery about his person, and Rey, now seeing him before her, idly wondered how old the man seated behind the grandiose, dark desk actually was.

He smiled, ghastly yellow teeth peeking from behind gray, lackluster skin.

“Please, sit,” he indicated as she stepped closer. She did so and continued focusing on keeping as cheerful a demeanor as possible. No losing chances at this for making inane impulsive judgments about his appearance.

“I’ve always been curious to meet the one who’s been heading up so many projects for my company. You’re….younger than I anticipated,” he spoke, his pronunciation popping at the end of his observation.

Okay. She could handle this.

“Well, age doesn’t hinder my experience. As you’ve mentioned, I’ve headed up numerous projects for NRT, and I participated in many unique internships throughout my schooling that have allowed me the opportunity to see creative solutions to everyday problems. Networking that I still engage with regularly to ensure that we keep with industrial innovations as time continues,” she responded, careful to craft her words so as to not oversell her confidence in her abilities, but ensure he understood she was up for this potential task.

“I’m sure you’re not unaware that the position for head of Applied Technologies has come up recently available…” his voice trailed a bit and Rey seized the chance to insert herself a bit further into the narrative she had begun crafting for herself ever since she’d received that email earlier this morning.

“I am, and I think I would be a great candidate for the role. You see, in all my time here at NRT, I’ve worked hard to embrace the--”

Palpatine’s chuckle, rises to a loud laugh and Rey felt herself redden.

“Oh my dear girl,” he broke in, inhaling deeply and taking in her confused face with...glee?

Rey feels unbalanced from the nonsensicalness of the situation.

“You’re here because I wanted to personally tell the workers of the Applied Technologies division that they will no longer be needed at my company.”

There’s a hole in the floor.

There must be because she is certain she’s falling.

Stomach in her throat, much like the elevator ride, to which she now knows is a rollercoaster, and she’s just begun the drop after the climb.

She licks her lips, trying to slide the stuck words out.

“I’m- I’m sorry, we’re being absorbed?” She tries to rationalize.

That laugh. That fucking...giddy sound again.

“No no, not absorbed. I’m hacking it entirely. Cutting off a dead limb, so to speak,” his voice sounds almost thoughtful, and he offers no further explanation.

Rey tries to speak, but there’s nothing there. She can’t help but feel the same sense of finality when that family closed their door on her face one last time, before she was taken to Plutt’s.

Her lip trembles, but she quickly pinches her arm, using the pain to distract from her devastation.

“That’s all I had to discuss. You’re free to go now,” he states and picks up his phone to make a call, entirely disinterested with her presence now.

She feels the turmoil welling up within her, and she feels the desire to stand up and demand answers for this indecency. But her ugly fears, the ones screeching in her ears how unwanted she is, hold her back and she mutely stands and shuffles to the exit of the garish office.

“Mr. Snoke! So good to hear from you again. Now about the other departmental carving, so to speak,” Palpatine says, oblivious and clearly uncaring about his maniacal decision to simply raze full departments.

“Oh, hold on just a moment, Snoke,” his voice cracks as it rasps across the room to where Rey presses herself, still stunned, against deep uneven grooves carved into the wood. Absently, she notices the door must be as thick as her palm, if not more. Wasn’t this the door that had, not even five minutes ago, been the threshold to her dreams?

“Young lady, Bazine has your severance package at her desk on your way out,” he calls as the monolithic door shuts tightly behind her, her fate just as sealed.

Rey doesn’t remember leaving the building, doesn’t recall how she boarded the subway without looking once. The awareness comes back as she’s jostled in the cramped car; she’s holding the packet of paper, presumably from Bazine, while bundled with her personal effects as well. There’s the stale stench of beer coming from someone nearby, but Rey hardly notices the acrid scent. Her phone vibrates away in her purse, drowned out but the chaos consuming her mind.

Tightness.

Her tongue feels too full for her mouth, and her fingertips buzz while her face heats and water wells up in her vision.

It’s too much. This...it hasn’t happened. She’s having a waking nightmare and her mind is just too tired from work.

The dry yellow envelope in her hands taunts otherwise.

She swallows and steels herself. She could...bear down and handle this. Piece by piece, she resolutely throws up her walls, burying the emotions threatening to tear her apart in a public spectacle.

Home is all she needs to make it to. If Rey can just make it home and lock herself away from the world for a day...days...then figure out how to recover from this utter failure. She spends the rest of her commute holding herself together; the fragile emotional bomb gaining a little bit of fuel for every wall she fights to erect around herself.

Rey focuses on her senses, refusing to let her thoughts dwell on anything in particular lest they spiral into disorder. The cold, smooth railing as she walks out of the subway and into the icy, still night. Her fingers clench and unclench on the lining of her gloves, feeling the fabric encasing them. Boots oddly silent on the sidewalk as she rounds the last corner and up the few stairs to her home. Her hands are trembling; she drops her keys as she tries to unlock the door.

“Fuck, just...fucking keep it together Rey,” she whispers harshly at herself, grabbing the irritating pieces of metal and shoving them into the keyhole a tad aggressively.

There are lights on, she notices as she steps in and closes the door behind her. Her brow furrows a bit and she steps around to the noises coming from within the home, near the kitchen.

“Rey! You’re back finally!” Rose exclaims and runs over to hug her tightly. Rey looks briefly around the room and sees Poe and Finn holding something. A cake? Her heart lurches a bit at the sight.

“You haven’t answered your phone, but we wanted to surprise YOU before you could spring us all with the great news!” Poe says with a smile and, as Rose lets Rey go, Rey can see the cake they’d baked and decorated with “Congratulations Rey!!!” scrawled over the face of it.

The pounding in her head increases, now there’s a ringing in her ears.

“We all know how hard you’ve been working for this and wanted to celebrate with you! Come on Rey, tell us about it!” Finn says, tossing an around casually around her shoulder in a side hug.

She didn’t see this coming. The ringing is louder now, coupled with the shock of seeing them all here, cheering and excited for something that didn’t happen.

“There you are,” Ben’s voice comes from her side, appearing from their bedroom, “was a bit worried when you didn’t answer.”

“I…” she trails off, her friends still talking around her. She sees Ben’s face; his smile one of the proudest he’s ever boasted. For her. She knows, he’s proud of her. Of what was supposed to be. What this was supposed to be for.

They’re still jabbering; the ringing is incessant, deafening.

“She’s going to have to get those wicked business cards NRT issues for Dept. heads,” Finn comments.

“Ooh! Are you getting one of those fancy offices up near the top? The ones that overlook, like, the whole city and river?” Rose asks eagerly.

“Come on now Rey, you’ve gotten what you earned right??” Poe cajoles.

The walls are shaking. Rey should have known she can’t withhold herself from the family she’s gained, but the walls aren’t just crumbling, there’s already a bomb inside, ready and lit.

“There is no job,” she says, her voice cracking. The others quiet down some, but are quick to bounce back.

“What, they’re just not going to hire a new department head? What are they gonna do, shove all the work onto you?” Poe bristles, his escalation feeding into the frenzy Rey was already desperately trying to contain.

“I’ve been fired,” she states plainly, internally bracing herself against the last few remnants of control she could feel turning to dust in her hands.

“Sweetheart, what do you mean fired?” Ben asks, stepping closer to grab her shaking hand.

“No way! That’s bullshit Peanut! They can’t fire you! Over what? What could you have possibly done?” Finn's voice begins to raise.

“You’ve worked so hard Rey! They can’t just take it all away like that!” Rose says making a movement to come closer.

Rey moves, unaware of where she’s going. She can’t hear the words but they’re all talking. Ben’s saying something, his baritone louder than the rest, but she can’t decipher if he’s talking at her or them; it’s all a dull roar in her ears as she feels that fuse inside snap and explode in a red fury.

SMASH.

There’s glass shattering.

The voices grow louder around her, trying to come closer.

“GET OUT,” a voice roars. _Hers? Does she make sounds like that?_

Her hand touches something else, it’s out of her grasp and flying into something.

More shatters.

“JUST LEAVE ME THE FUCK ALONE. GET OUT,” she screams with all the force she’s shoved down for the past hour.

She doesn’t look at anyone, but her hand sprawls across the island as she tries to regain her breath from the expulsion.

It brushes against something else, and the white hot anger pulsing through her fingertips grasps it and shoves as hard as she can growling at everyone,

“I SAID GO THE FUCK AWAY!” The cake collides with the wine her friends had retrieved, and smashes to the ground in a glorious pile of ruin, mirroring her self value now.

Quiet bears down on her heavily as she stands there, shaking and refusing to meet anyone’s eyes.

No one speaks, no one moves, hardly daring to breathe.

The ringing in her ears has stopped, but she can still feel the remnants of outrage sitting just under the surface, fingers twitching.

“Okay Rey,” Rose braves first, “we’ll talk to you soon then. We love you Rey, sorry things...didn’t go as we’d hoped.” She’s corralling the other two boys and herding them toward the door, giving them each a mean enough look that if they even tried to protest they wouldn’t appreciate the consequences. They do so, if begrudgingly.

Their hushed voices speak as they leave, probably conspiring secrets after seeing such a temper tantrum from the one who’s usually the most reeled in of the bunch. Rey hears the door close, and Ben’s footsteps come nearby.

Minutes pass... maybe? She’s unsure. Time feels askew now.

The walls are in ruin, obliterated in the rampage, and instead her devouring chaos is welling up, leaving hot tracks down her face as her head hangs down.

Rey’s face falls into her hands, trembling, half-hunched over the counter top. She’s not ready to fall apart yet. She wants to shove it down again, swallow it whole before it consumes her and leaves her open and exposed all over again. The righteous indignation she feels towards Palpatine, and how she’d devoted herself to NRT for years, weeks slept away at the office, making sure things went off without a hitch, to be left with this nonplussed, almost excruciating result.

Parallels dance across her mind, relating it to the same incidents and all the times she was dropped off with someone else, never given a reason why she wasn’t good enough for them and had to leave. It feels absurd, working for so long to deal with traumas only for them to surface again, more nuanced and charged than ever before. Silly even, to feel like such a child after all the effort and therapy she put in, but here she is. Back in her first night in the junkyard.

Rey hears a drawer open and close, followed by what must be shards of glass being scraped across the floor. Sniffling, she balls her hands into fists and pushes herself up. Ben’s kneeling behind her, gently cleaning up the ruins of her explosion. Conveniently angling himself just so she can’t storm off without bumping into him, and in effect protecting her from all the pieces dangerously scattered around them.

Every swish of his hand, each fragment picked up, brings to her a small exhale, and the anger ebbs away as she stands watching him, tethering herself internally to whatever sense of self-preservation she has remaining to not collapse.

She...she can handle this....she can -- there’s a sob stuck in her throat.

She’s falling again, and she’s scared on the way down, afraid of how far it is.

But before she hits the ground, Ben’s arms are around her, locking her securely to him. Rey’s bawling. The tears are coming out faster than she can wipe them away. Disappointment, hatred, sadness, absolute confusion, relief?, fear, treacherous anxiety pours out of her. Ben shuffles them to the couch and Rey sits without complaint, letting go of all the emotions she’d held captive in her fortress for so long. His hands rearrange her quickly - she can feel his hands at her back now, rubbing in soothing long strokes as she buries her face into his chest and wets his shirt.

“M’sorry,” she hiccups against his neck after some long moments, limbs weary from the emotional exertion. She feels him press a kiss into the side of her head.

“Honey, you don’t have anything to be sorry for,” he says, pushing her back a little so he can see her face. Rey’s certain her face is a splotchy, rugged mess, but he just brushes a hand through her hair and pulls her back to him in a tight embrace unbothered.

“But...I got fired,” she starts. Ben waits, sensing she wants to say more and needs a moment to gather her thoughts.

She narrows her eyes, annoyed, but her breath catches in her throat when she tries to speak.

“My whole department got fucking scratched and I didn’t even get an explanation,” she grits out then continues, “I gave them years of my efforts! I did everything I was supposed to!” Her hands tighten in Ben’s shirt, his now settled on her waist, as he listens to her explain how everything had gone from feeling gateway-to-the-top to it-was-all-for-nothing-and-they-don’t-care in such a short span of time.

His grip tightens as she recalls Palpatine’s painfully quick dismissal and his ungodly happy responses.

Rey looks at him imploringly.

“What did I do wrong?! I got out and did what I needed to. I did the schooling and got the internships with all the right people. I thought I had made myself worth keeping at a company. What could I have missed to suddenly fall this far?! ” There are new tears running their own marathon now on her face, rivers streaking the freckled skin.

Ben brings one hand up to her face, brushing away some of them as new ones roll quickly after. His heart breaks seeing Rey like this, so tossed back into her childhood fears and feeling like spiraling out of control with no way out.

“You didn’t do anything wrong, love,” his other hand comes up too and cradles her face to keep her gaze. She stares sadly into his whiskey eyes.

“First of all, clearly a maniac is going to destroy that company. A disgusting sadist that enjoys seeing others’ despair. There are going to be other opportunities; this isn’t the end of everything even if it feels overwhelming right now.” She nods hearing his words, placing her hands on his broad shoulders, grounding herself to him. “

And no matter what, you are absolutely valued by the ones who love you. Your friends aren’t going to love you any less for this, I’m certainly not going to! Maybe we could have handled it a little differently than destroying the pretty cake they’d made...” his voice trails off as he glances over to the mush still lying on the floor.

Rey buries her face against his neck. “I was such an ass to them. I just. I got so frustrated. I still don’t see what I could have done differently,” she sighs, drained.

Ben’s fingers card through her hair.

“You know… ” he trails off after a few minutes of stillness, save for a few sniffles. Ben chuckles soft and leans forward, kissing her tenderly, pushing as much reassurance and love into it as he can muster.

She feels her lip tremble as he leans back, dark wisps framing his face as he watches her.

“I thought I’d disappointed you.” 

Ben pulls her flush against him, threading one of his hands with hers securely. 

“Never. It’s possible to commit no mistakes and still lose. That isn’t a weakness, Precious. That’s just life, and you’re gonna have me here through all of it.”

Rey processes his words, thumb tracing the skin of his hand and embracing the shielding of comfort he's giving to her. 

"We'll get through this Rey. I'll even help you with you update your resume tomorrow," he says, his tone playful, trying to pull her out of the miserable whirlpool she was swimming inside her head. 

If they don't clean up the cake, it'll be an even worse mess by tomorrow, so she lifts herself off Ben's wide lap and fumbles towards the wreck. 

"Could you help me clean it up?" she asks, a nervous tremor quickly dashing through her veins. He stands up with a caring smile and comes over, picking up the paper towels he'd dropped to catch her earlier. 

"Of course babe. I wouldn't let you pick it up alone."


End file.
